HTC raking it in

HTC surpassed Nokia this week, becoming the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer by market value. Also giving the Taiwanese firm cause for celebration are its quarterly profits, which are, as the French say, incroyable.

In the first quarter of 2010, HTC’s net income was NT$5 billion. For the first quarter of this year, HTC took that figure and almost trebled it, to NT$14.8 billion. One pound coin gets you NT$47, so in our money they’ve made, er, a shedload.

The firm’s profits are only expected to increase as the year rolls on. It’s currently preparing to launch the HTC Evo 3D (in summer-ish) and the HTC Flyer. We're also excited by the rumoured HTC Pyramid; 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4.3in screen and 8MP camera, anyone?

HTC’s success is largely attributed to its Android catalogue, though it recently claimed to have accounted for four out of five Windows Phone 7 handsets sold last year. It hasn’t been put off by Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia, and will continue to release WP7 smartphones.

I just read the funniest article about this in the Financial Post. I'll try and find the link later.
The gist: Nokia signed a deal with Microsoft - but it'll probably not help save Nokia. BUT: MICROSOFT'S WP7 is tipped to become MarketLeader by 2015... What the article FAILS TO SAY: that projection is based on Gartner's guesstimate that Nokia will make WP7 so very successful... It twists your brain when 2 analyses get mixed and blended and reanalysed...
Anyway.

If HTC keep dropping the ball by a) concentrating on WP7 and not Android and b) bringing out crap like the Wildfire S and Desire S (both small tweaks on old handsets) whilst SE (Arc and Play), LG (2x) and Samsung (GS2) bring out innovative handsets, then they will fade out to nothing again.

LOL
I know what you mean, morpheus...
I know a few folks (incl myself) who are HTC-tired.
I have serious doubts as to their long-term rep. I certainly don't think any of their current Android handsets will achieve the kind of 'classic' status that their old TYTNs or the newer HD2 achieved.
It's not all their fault, of course, but they really need to cop on - do something different. Gee, rescaled a photo of a Flyer looks like a Wildfire looks like a Desire looks like a Desire HD! They might as well do the Apple thing and just release one uber-Desire per year.
I didn't think Sony Ericsson would come back from the X10 debacle with something sleak and as different as the Arc.
HTC thought putting a kickstand on the HD7 was enough to differentiate their WP7 portfolio from the Android devices